Articles

My beautiful Canadian Christmases

By Carol Graychik – Mariposa, CA, USA Where do I go for Christmas? It’s far off to another land – another country – to the silence and beauty of the moonlight on new-fallen snow with [more…]

Springtime brought pain relief and bird nests

By Hilda Born – Abbotsford, B.C. I grew up in the village of Blumenort, south of Swift Current, Sask., during the Depression. The long cold winters often gave me chilblains because I didn’t have good [more…]

The buildings looked familiar, but…

By Earl Boan – Moose Jaw, Sask. I can’t remember what year it was, but the economy had slowed down and I got laid off from my job in Moose Jaw. It seemed nobody in the [more…]

My childhood dream was to teach Grade 1

By Augusta ‘Gusty’ Chartrand – Regina, Sask. I taught at Bird’s Eye View School in 1953-54. A picture of the school in the July 2011 issue of The Senior Paper brought back many memories from before, [more…]

Kids used extra socks to make skates fit

By George Findlay – Calgary, Alta. Saturday morning was practice time for the the Lemberg, Sask., Junior Hockey Team in 1938. Occasionally we’d go to the next town in a grain box on runners pulled [more…]

Brother was a big Slim Wilson fan

By Gerald Erickson – Sundre, Alta. My dad and mother homesteaded north of Big River, Sask., in the spring of 1932. There were 11 children then, which increased to 15 by 1940. There were eight [more…]

I couldn’t even remember being so dirty

By Bonnie Patterson – Owen Sound, Ont. My parents, Hilmer and Minnie Darroch, farmed two miles west of Mount Forest, Ontario. Early in April, on a Saturday morning, I would milk five cows then take my [more…]

Uncle froze getting her to hospital

By Loretta Oddan – Medicine Hat, Alta. My dad had an auction sale in 1947 with his friend Jack Heilman. They needed money to go to Vancouver to work, and for money to keep things going [more…]

Four year old taken on wild ride

By Lorne Buchanan – Winnipeg, Man. Growing up on a farm at Francis, 42 miles southeast of Regina, Sask., I remember many of the living conditions during the 1930s. I recall how hard my parents and [more…]

Button Box reminds me of a repair era

By Joyce Hayko – Lethbridge, Alta. When I was growing up in the 1940s, our home owned a sewing repair kit called the Button Box. Almost any tiny item found its way into the button [more…]

To the present generation, our past is ‘just a story’

By Anne (Kurkowsky) Cohoon – Wilberforce, Ont. My brother, Michael Kurkowsky, was a soldier. He was born on a farm north of the village of Hyas in east-central Saskatchewan, and attended Lake Helen School. During the [more…]

Thrilling hang-gliding flight taken at 80

By George Hennessy – Falkland, B.C. I was born in January 1918 to pioneer parents on their homestead farm, 12 miles southwest of historic Battleford, Sask. Mother, as a young woman, walked (mostly behind a covered [more…]

‘We all rushed to examine this marvel’

By Russ Stewart – Victoria, B.C. During the lean years of the 1930s, a ray of light came into our lives in the form of a radio. Dad paid $2 for it at an auction sale. [more…]

Soldier To Veteran

By Wesley Sliwka – Trossachs, Sask. With precision steps to the beat of drums Their polished boots keep marching on Chests filled with pride, hearts full of love For their people and our native land. In [more…]

Family farmers fond of Ford

By Art Klassen – Portage la Prairie, Man. A photo of a Fordson tractor in The Senior Paper reminded me of our Fordson tractors. In the early 1920s, my parents were living with their parents [more…]

A collection plate predicament!

By Ilien Coffey – Vernon, B.C. I hurried down from my second floor apartment to catch the bus to get to Sunday church about a mile away. I was wearing my brand new shoes with stiletto [more…]

Dusty old game finds new life

By Hilda Zaiser – Winnipeg, Man. During a fleeting moment of ambition, I decided to create some order in my messy storage room. As I was tidying the shelves, I came across my old Scrabble game. Although [more…]

Kids were designated wartime smugglers

By Mickey (Larson) Lightfoot – Mississauga, Ont. My early years were spent in a tiny village called Northgate, south of Oxbow, Sask., on the border of North Dakota. A bigger town, also named Northgate, was [more…]

Sulfur was used to hide smell of homebrew hooch

By Emil Eirich – Saskatoon, Sask. Stories in The Senior Paper about homebrew reminded me about my father, Dave, and my Uncle Gust making their own homebrew. This would have taken place in the early 1940s [more…]

Depression-era journey was an adventure

By John Seierstad – Nanaimo, B.C. My life was filled with hard work, travel, and adventure, however, none can remotely match the experience of travelling to the north with my father when we left the [more…]